Leaving UK in better shape: Starmer at final Parliament session as PM

Keir Starmer wrapped up his final Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) session in the lower house of the UK Parliament on Wednesday with an emotional farewell and a standing ovation from the Government benches.

The 63-year-old Labour MP, who announced his resignation last month and has been serving as caretaker until the party leader is elected, said he was leaving Britain in a better place than he found it and expressed “wholehearted support” for his successor.

Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, is on course to take charge as the new British prime minister next week after being endorsed by a resounding 349 Labour MPs in the leadership race. “I’m proud to leave this country in a better shape than I found it; I am proud of everything that we have achieved,” Starmer told MPs in the House of Commons as he concluded PMQs with “goodbye.”

“Every Prime Minister knows when they take up the torch that the day will come when they have to pass it on. That day has come for me. This is the end of my political journey. In six years, we went from historic defeat in 2019 to historic victory in 2024,” he said.

During a largely good-natured final parliamentary clash across the despatch box, Starmer reflected upon his legacy as someone who had “picked up” the Labour Party from electoral oblivion to win a “landslide” general election in July 2024.